130: Taking aim at Amazon: Why physical retail will ALWAYS beat online with BOXPARK & Boxfresh founder Roger Wade.

Call To Action

This week, Call to Action® laid bait in a box trap to lure and snare our maiden catch of 2024, Roger Wade.
First founding Boxfresh, a pioneering British streetwear brand, he went on to transform a patch of wasteland to create the world’s first pop-up dining and shopping destination, BOXPARK, in the heart of London’s Shoreditch. Today, Roger is putting his passion for independent brands, the future of retail, and thinking outside the Box, into his role as Chairman of Boxfund VC.
We shoot the breeze on stealing sweets, getting sacked from his first three jobs in advertising, having a positive attitude to problems, entrepreneurship, risk, how Boxfresh gave 90s kids a new uniform, being special to your customer, investing in people not spreadsheets, emotion in business, golf, why in-store is better than online for all three key pillars of retail, and loads more.
In fact, we had to stop and reload a few times to take aim at Bezos, bean counters, Boris and Brexit. And he certainly doesn’t sit on the fence. What an episode.
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Timestamps
(02:00) - Quick fire questions
(03:55) - Stealing sweets, running nightclubs, and getting sacked from his first 3 jobs in advertising
(06:40) - Realising he was unemployable and why it was the best thing that ever happened to him
(08:54) - Creating a new uniform for 90s kids with Boxfresh
(12:50) - “If you aren’t special to your customer, you won’t exist”
(17:00) - Investing in people not spreadsheets and why we need to talk more about emotion in business
(23:43) - Giving both barrels to Bezos, Boris, and Brexit
(33:52) - Listener questions
(39:34) - 4 pertinent posers

Roger’s book recommendations are:
Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart
But What Can I Do? by Alistair Campbell
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